Vice President's Remarks in Los Lunas, New Mexico
Los Lunas High School
Los Lunas, New Mexico

5:04 P.M. MST

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much for that warm
welcome. It's good to be back in the Land of Enchantment. (Applause.)
And New Mexico looks like Bush-Cheney country. (Applause.)

Well, it's true Lynne has known me since I was 14 ,but she wouldn't
go out with me until I was 17. (Laughter.) I explain to people that
we got married because Dwight Eisenhower got elected President of the
United States. (Laughter.) In those days I was a youngster living in
Nebraska with my folks. Dad worked for the Soil Conservation
Service. Eisenhower got elected, reorganized the government, Dad got
transferred to Casper, Wyoming, where I met Lynne. We grew up
together, went to high school together, and recently celebrated our
40th wedding anniversary. (Applause.) I explained to a group the
other night that if it hadn't been for Eisenhower's victory, Lynne
would have married somebody else. (Laughter.) And she said, right,
and now he'd be Vice President of the United States. (Laughter.) Yes,
indeed.

Well, I don't know how much you've noticed about our opponent,
Senator Kerry, of course. He went goose hunting the other day in
Ohio. (Laughter.) He wore a new camouflage jacket for the occasion --
(laughter) -- which made me wonder how often he'd been goose hunting
before. (Laughter.) My personal opinion is his camo jacket is an
October disguise. (Laughter.) It's an effort he's making to hide the
fact that he votes against gun owners every chance he gets. You want
my opinion of the whole thing: John Kerry's goose is cooked. (Laughter
and applause.)

With just two days left in the campaign, the choice in this
election could not be more clear. The stakes are very high, both at
home and abroad. And I believe on Tuesday, the American people are
going to make George W. Bush President for four more years.
(Applause.)

It's a pleasure to be with you today in Los Lunas. The President
and I have a good feeling about this area, indeed, about the entire
state because with your help, we're going to carry New Mexico on
Tuesday.

I also want to thank Pete Domenici for those kind words, and for
joining us today. (Applause.) Pete and I have known each other for 30
years, and he is a superb senator not only for New Mexico, but the
entire country. He takes care. (Applause.) And although he could not
be here today, I want to put in a good word for your Congressman, Steve
Pearce. (Applause.) He does a great job, and I know he's on his way
to another term in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Applause.)

But I also want to thank everybody who has helped with this
campaign, putting up yard signs, making the phone calls, doing the
door-to-door work, helping turn out the vote. This campaign has the
greatest ground game in American political history, and I want to thank
you for being a part of it. (Applause.)

New Mexico voters understand the importance of steady, principled,
consistent leadership in the White House. This is no ordinary time for
America. We've all seen the recent tape of Osama bin Laden. It's a
reminder that we're engaged in a global war on terror. This is a
conflict we did not choose, but it is one that we will win.
(Applause.)

Over the course of the last four years, I think people have seen
very clearly the character and the vision of our President. He's a man
of loyalty and kindness who speaks plainly and means what he says.
He's a man of conviction, who puts his country above himself. He works
with steadfast purpose to do what's right for America.

For John Kerry it's all about politics rather than principle.
After the bin Laden tape aired the other night, John Kerry's campaign
ran a poll to see what his response should be. (Laughter.) He put his
finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. My friends,
let me say that George Bush doesn't need a poll to know where he stands
in the war on terror. (Applause.)

Shameless as John Kerry's response to the Osama bin Laden tape was,
it should not come as a surprise. Just over a year ago, John Kerry
looked at the poll results and turned his back on our troops. Senator
Kerry you will remember voted in favor of using force against Saddam
Hussein, but then during the primary season when it came time to vote
for funds that would provide our men and women with the body armor,
ammunition, jet fuel, and spare parts they needed, Senator Kerry voted
"no."

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He offered a ridiculous explanation which,
frankly, I think will go down in the history of American politics. He
said, and I quote, "I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted
against it." (Laughter.)

But the real reason he turned his back on our troops was Howard
Dean -- Dean was the antiwar candidate; Dean was surging ahead in the
polls; and so John Kerry in order to advance himself in the primaries,
turned his back on our troops. He said his vote was "complicated."
(Laughter.) But, my friends, supporting American troops in combat
should never be a complicated matter. (Applause.)

John Kerry will say and do anything in order to get elected. He
will attack the Patriot Act -- after he voted for it. He'll attack the
No Child Left Behind Act -- after he voted for it. He'll try to scare
young people by raising the specter of the draft ?- when he knows the
only people who have supported the idea of bringing it back are two
members of his own party. Nobody but those two Democrats wants to
change the all-volunteer force because it's the finest military the
world has ever known. (Applause.)

John Kerry will say and do anything to get elected. America's
military men and women have liberated 50 million people in three
years. In Afghanistan, they managed to do in two months what the
Soviet Union could not do in 10 years. (Applause.) In Iraq, they
toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in just three weeks. (Applause.)
But instead of praising their achievement, John Kerry harps away at
phony charges. He says we took our eye off the ball at Tora Bora, a
charge that General Tommy Franks, who commanded our forces, has totally
refuted. Given a choice between John Kerry's opinion and General Tommy
Franks, I'll go with General Franks every time. (Applause.)

John Kerry has spent a lot of this campaign playing armchair
general, and, frankly, he's not very good at it. (Laughter.) This
shouldn't surprise us given his weak record on national security. He
first ran for Congress advocating the idea that we should deploy
American troops only with the authorization of the United Nations.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He ran for the Senate on the platform that we
should dismantle most of the major weapons systems that Ronald Reagan
--

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- that Ronald Reagan used to keep the peace
and win the Cold War. In 1991, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and
stood poised to dominate the Persian Gulf, John Kerry voted against
Operation Desert Storm.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: In the first debate this year, Senator Kerry
said America had to meet some kind of global test before we could take
military action. The President and I know better than that. We know
that it is not our job to conduct international opinion polls, our job
is to defend America. (Applause.)

Now in the closing days of the campaign, John Kerry is running
around, talking tough. He's trying every which way to cover up his
record of weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't
work. As we like to say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you
want on that pig, but it's still a pig. (Laughter and applause.)
That's my favorite line. (Laughter.) You want to hear it again?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: As we say in Wyoming -- (laughter) -- you can
put all the lipstick you want on that pig, but at the end of the day
it's still a pig. (Applause.) All right, I've got to concentrate
here. (Laughter.)

John Kerry does not have the judgment or the conviction that
America needs in a President. He is not a steadfast leader.

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Our President is.

AUDIENCE: Yes! (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: And let me tell you why that matters. A
country can never know what a President will be called upon to do.
Think of the last four years; think of the challenges of 9/11 and the
global war on terror. And because our President is a man of character
and steadfast determination, he's led us very well.

At the Republican Convention, former Mayor Giuliani told how on
9/11 he turned to his police commissioner, Bernie Kerik, and said,
Thank God, George Bush is our Commander-in-Chief. (Applause.)

Under the President's leadership, we have reached around the world
to capture and kill thousands of al Qaeda. In Afghanistan, the camps
where terrorists trained to kill Americans have been shut down, the
Taliban driven from power. In Iraq, we dealt with a gathering threat
and removed the regime of Saddam Hussein. Nineteen months ago, he
controlled the lives of 25 million people. Tonight, he sits in jail.
(Applause.)

Because of President Bush's determination in the war on terror,
leaders around the world are getting the message. Just five days after
Saddam Hussein was captured, Moammar Ghadafi in Libya agreed to abandon
his nuclear weapons program and turn the materials over to the U.S.
(Applause.)

The biggest danger we face today is having nuclear weapons
technology fall into the hands of terrorists. The President is working
with many countries in the global effort to end the trade and transfer
of these deadly technologies. The most important result thus far is
that the black-market network that supplied nuclear weapons technology
to Libya, as well as to Iran and North Korea, has been shut down. And
the world is safer as a result. (Applause.)

We could not have succeeded in these efforts without the help of
dozens of countries around the world. We will always seek
international support for international efforts, but as President Bush
has made very clear, there is a difference between leading a coalition
of many nations and submitting to the objections of a few. We will
never seek a permission slip to defend the United States of America.
(Applause.)

The clearest, most important difference in this campaign is simple
to state: President Bush understands the war on terror and has a
strategy for winning it; Senator Kerry does not. All doubt on that
matter was removed when Senator Kerry recently said he wanted to lead
America back to the place where we were -- to a time when terrorism
was, in his word, a "nuisance."

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Like illegal gambling or prostitution. That's
the comparison he made.

When I read that, I thought to myself, when was terrorism only a
nuisance? Was it just a nuisance four years ago, when the USS Cole was
attacked and almost sunk and we lost 17 sailors?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Was it a nuisance six years ago when they
attacked two of our embassies in East Africa and killed hundreds of
people?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Or 11 years ago when the World Trade Center in
New York was first bombed?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Or 16 years ago when Pan Am 103 was blown out
of the skies over Lockerbie Scotland?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Or 21 years ago, when a suicide bomber in a
truck loaded with explosives drove into our barracks in Beirut and
killed 241 Marines?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: My friends, there never was a time when
terrorism was just a nuisance. (Applause.) There never can be a time
when terrorism is just a nuisance. Our goal is not to reduce terror to
some acceptable level. Our goal is to defeat terror, and with George
Bush as President, that's exactly what we will do. (Applause.)

These are not times for leaders who shift with the political winds,
or who fail to understand the nature of the struggle we're in. Our
troops, our allies, and our enemies must know where America stands.
The President of the United States must be clear and consistent. In
his years in Washington, John Kerry has been one of a hundred votes in
the United States Senate and fortunately -- fortunately on matters of
national security, his views rarely prevail. But the presidency is an
entirely different proposition. A senator can be wrong for 20 years,
without consequence to the nation. But a President -- a President --
always casts the deciding vote. And in this time of challenge, America
needs ?- and America has ?- a President we can count on to get it
right. (Applause.)

President Bush knows that our dedicated servicemen and women
represent the very best of the United States of America. (Applause.)
I want to thank them, their families, and all our veterans here today
for what they've done for all of us. (Applause.)

Our country requires strong and consistent leadership for our
actions overseas, and the same is true for our policies here at home.
When President Bush and I stood on the inaugural platform on the west
front of the Capitol and took the oath of office, our economy was
sliding into recession. Then terrorists struck on 9/11 and shook our
economy once again. We faced a basic decision -? to leave more money
with families and businesses, or to take more of the American people's
hard-earned money for the federal government. President Bush made his
choice. He proposed and he delivered tax cuts for the American people
not once, not twice, but four times in four years. (Applause.)

Every American who pays federal income taxes benefited from the
Bush tax cuts ?- and so has the economy. We've created jobs for 13
consecutive months -? a total of over 1.9 million new jobs during that
period. Here in New Mexico, nearly 42,000 jobs have been added since
'01. (Applause.) The President's tax cuts are allowing more people to
live out the dream of owning their own business. And in the last four
years, the number of Latino-owned small businesses has increased 33
percent to nearly 2 million. (Applause.) The President's policies
have helped bring home ownership, another piece of the American Dream,
within reach of more Americans. We're working to close the home
ownership gap. I'm proud to report there are more minority home owners
today than ever before in history. (Applause.)

We're also seeing record exports for farm products. Farm income is
up. Our farm economy is strong and that's good for the entire nation.
(Applause.) Our economy is growing and in a second term, we'll keep
moving it in the right direction by making the Bush tax cuts
permanent. (Applause.)

We'll also work to end lawsuit abuse. We know it's easier for
America's businesses to hire new workers if they don't have to keep
hiring lawyers. (Applause.)

We'll continue to work to help parents and teachers improve our
public schools. With high standards in place, the achievement gap is
closing. I know you're as proud as I am that last school year New
Mexico children from every background improved their overall
performance. (Applause.)

We'll work for medical liability reform so that America's doctors
are able to spend their time healing patients, not fighting off
frivolous lawsuits. (Applause.)

President Bush and I will also continue to defend our society's
fundamental rights and values. (Applause.) We stand for a culture of
life and reject the brutal practice of partial birth abortion.
(Applause.) We stand strongly for the Second Amendment and will defend
the individual right of every American to bear arms. (Applause.) We
believe our nation is "one nation under God." And we believe Americans
ought to be able to say so when we pledge allegiance to the flag.
(Applause.)

There shouldn't be any question about this ?- and there wouldn't be
if we had more reasonable judges on the federal bench. (Applause.)
The Democrats in the Senate have been doing everything they can -?
including using the filibuster -? to keep the President's sensible,
mainstream nominees off the bench.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: They are hoping to wait the President out.
But I've got news for them. That's not going to happen because we're
going to win this election. (Applause.)

The President and I are honored by your commitment to the cause we
all share. President Bush and I will wage this effort with complete
confidence in the American people. The signs are good -? here in New
Mexico, and even in Massachusetts. (Applause.)

According to a news account, people leaving the Democratic National
Convention in July asked a Boston policeman for directions. He
replied, Leave here ?- and go vote Republican. (Applause.)

President Bush and I are honored to have the support of that police
officer -- (laughter) -- and of Democrats, Republicans, and
independents from every calling in American life. We're grateful to
our many friends across the great state of New Mexico. I want to thank
you for the tremendous welcome this evening. We're proud to have you
on the team. (Applause.) And together, on November 2nd, we'll see our
cause forward to victory.